Book 1, Walk 21 - Leigh to Sevenoaks
Length: 14.5 km (9 miles)
Toughness: 5 out of 10 - just one long steep(ish) incline after lunch
London Charing Cross:10-10 hrs Ramsgate service. Waterloo East 10-13 hrs, London Bridge 10-19 hrs
Arrive Tonbridge: 10-51 hrs Change trains
Leave Tonbridge: 11-01 hrs Redhill service
Arrive Leigh: 11-05 hrs
Return Sevenoaks to London (mostly Charing Cross); 7 trains an hour
Rail ticket: Buy a day return to Leigh (Kent)
It is 5 years since this pleasant stroll in Kent had a summer outing - and over 12 years since its last mid-week posting, so perhaps it is overdue an outing in dry conditions (the walk tends to be horribly muddy in winter).
You have a choice of lunchtime pubs, depending on which route you take. The White Rock pub is on the main route. When I last book checked this walk I found the current management walker friendly, whereas in bygone years walkers had not been welcomed. The food is usually good to excellent. The Cock Horse pub in Hildenborough on the alternative route is also pleasant and its management made a fuss of me on my visit last year.
After lunch you have to negotiate the steep incline on this walk, with sections of the slope being in narrow gullies - but which should be bone dry today (not the case in winter). You then find yourselves in Knole Park which most of you will be familiar with - its grand house, its tearoom, its deer park. As you will arrive at the house within an hour of leaving The White Rock pub (circa 90 mins from the Cock Horse pub) you might find it a bit early to take tea in the Park's Brewhouse Tearoom (otherwise recommended). From the Park it is a short walk into the heart of Sevenoaks, where you can find several pubs and tea rooms, plus a branch of Bills. The walk downhill to Sevenoaks railway station is less than exciting, but by then you should have had a most enjoyable day's walk.
T=1.21
Walk Directions here: L=1.21
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Five off the train and one "local" who we met en route so n=6 in all. Most walkers appeared in rain-proof garb - except me- and the (half)day was generally w=cloudy-with-a-little-rain so some mud was picked up on boots and the bottom of trousers: essentially the first walk of autumn. We took our boots off for the White Rock pub which served exellent food of sizeable portions in quick time.
After lunch the group soon reached Knole Park where 2 decided to visit its grand house. Speedily back to London and back through the frnt door by 5pm. Not a bad walk but not a Book 1 classic.
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